Albert Geyser

The Geyser progenitor had immigrated to South Africa in 1725, and Albert's great-grandfather and grandfather had been among the founding members of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk (NHK).

Albertus (Albert) Stephanus Geyser (10 February 1918 – 13 June 1985) was a South African cleric, scholar and anti-apartheid theologian.

Geyser became an outcast in the white Afrikaner community because of his theological opposition to apartheid and to the Broederbond, the secret male Calvinist organisation that covertly steered South African politics during the apartheid era.

He obtained master's and doctoral degrees cum laude, specializing in Greek and Latin.

At the age of 27 he was appointed lecturer, and a year later, professor in the Theological Faculty of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk at the University of Pretoria.

Albert Geyser was born to Maria Johanna Albertina ("Nina") Lamprecht and Petrus Geyser on 10 February 1918 on a farm near Naboomspruit, Transvaal province (now the town of Mookgophong in the Limpopo Province).

Petrus and Maria had three children, including Albert's brother, Hendrik Johannes Geyser.

Albert Geyser attended primary school in Ermelo, and matriculated from the Hoërskool (High School) Ermelo in 1935.

With his brother, Hendrik, he was admitted to the University of Pretoria, with both intending to become ministers in the NHK.

Albert earned his BA degree in Greek and Latin cum laude in 1938, followed by a BD in 1940.

Greyvenstein was particularly reluctant to surrender two of his three courses to Geyser, one of which he had handed off to C H Rautenbach in 1939.

Another group solidified around Professor S P Engelbrecht in support of Geyser, who would have been left with only one course to teach if Greyvenstein had been allowed to continue.

The NHK's General Assembly rejected Greyvenstein's position by a vote of 70 to 55, revealing that Geyser's ascension was far from unanimous.

In the early 1940s Geyser married Celia van der Westhuisen in Rustenburg and the couple had three sons and two daughters.

As denominational regulations required a minimum age of 23 years for appointment as a minister, Geyser worked in Cape Town until he became eligible in 1941.

He was then invited to serve the congregations at Heilbron and at Parys in the Free State, where he was ordained and ministered from 1941 to 1943.

Geyser continued his studies at Pretoria and earned an MA in Greek and Latin in 1943.

Greyvenstein had reached retirement age in 1943, but the Faculty had permitted him to continue teaching until Geyser had obtained his doctorate.

Geyser had registered in 1943 for a doctorate in Church History, but in September 1944 switched to New Testament studies with Professor Berend Gemser as doctoral advisor.

Geyser's appointment as professor produced controversies from the outset, relating to other faculty members, his lack of a doctorate, the selection of a rector for the University and, later, his theological interpretations and political views.

His appointment had been subject to the completion of his doctorate.

He served as minister of the NHK's Pretoria North-West congregation from 1944–1945.

In August 1944 Geyser was nominated by the Theology Faculty as professor of New Testament Exegesis and successor to Professor J H J A Greyvenstein in the NHK's section at the University of Pretoria.

Since 1944 Greyvenstein had wanted his successor to be either his student, S P J J van Rensburg, or the Dutch doctor Adrianus van Selms, lecturer in Semitic languages and Old Testament Studies in the Faculty since 1938.

He completed additional courses in Aramaic and Syriac in 1945, adding these to his sound knowledge of Afrikaans, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, Dutch and English; meaning that he could "read 10 languages."

But by 1945 Van Rensburg lacked a doctorate, and although Van Rensburg had been given similar conditions to Geyser's, he fell out of contention as he took much longer than Geyser to complete his doctoral examinations.

At the May 1945 general assembly of the NHK Greyvenstein requested to continue teaching beyond 1947 and mobilized some of his former students in support.

While Geyser completed the oral and written examinations well in August 1945, his examiners were divided about the quality of his doctoral dissertation.

He earned a Doctor Divinitatis degree with distinction in 1946 on the topic of the genealogy of Jesus, also at the University of Pretoria.

Geyser's was the first doctorate to be awarded by the Theology Faculty.

Geyser's academic career included professorial appointments at the University of Pretoria (1946-1961) and, subsequently, at the University of the Witwatersrand (1962-1983).

Van Selms was a prisoner of war in Japanese-held Indonesia, and would only return in 1946.

Disputes about Geyser's appointment continued through various official meetings until September 1946, when Greyvenstein abruptly retired, rendering it moot.

With regards Geyser's academic qualifications, a Professor H P Wolmarans was concerned that Geyser's studies neglected theology in favour of classical languages.

Only one of his three examiners, Professor J. De Zwaan of the University of Leiden, recommended that the degree should be granted cum laude, but this was the option endorsed by the council of the Faculty of Theology in March 1946.

After an initial appointment in 1946, Geyser was permanently appointed in September 1947 as professor and head of the Department of New Testament Science.

Geyser insisted on taking all of Greyvenstein's subjects, including practical theology, Christian ethics, and dogmatics, forbidding students from attending Rautenbach's ethics class.

Rautenbach aired his displeasure at Geyser's actions in various meetings.

According to Adriaan Pont, former undergraduate of Geyser's and later his fiercest adversary, Rautenbach had opposed Geyser's appointment.

Geyser contributed to the first annotated edition (1953–1958) of the Bible in Afrikaans, founded the Christian Institute, and was the first South African to be elected as a member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.